Krile and Papalymo started to play with each other as I turned and looked at the few paths that we could take. I got a sudden idea. "I guess we could try to find our way by taking one of these paths. I choose this one, any objections?" I turned to the creatures. Krile cocked her head and Papalymo barked. "Ok I guess not." I got back on Krile's saddle. "And we're off!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The journey was slow. Or at sometimes, like when we were escaping certain death, it was quick paced. But it was mostly just walking around and endless labyrinth of a world. There were multiple dead ends, wild ravagers that blocked certain paths, and even a few hallucination mushrooms. We were lucky enough not to get hit by any of them. The Aberration world started to grow darker as night approached. Krile whined. She was probably getting hungry. "It's ok girl, we'll be home- I mean back at the base soon. I hope." A random thought struck me. What's Alphinaud doing right now? He was probably worried sick. We had been out here for hours, and now with the sunset in process.... it was completely dark a few minutes later. The only things that guided us were large glowing bugs that emit a light like Papalymo's. "Wait!" I exclaimed, tugging on the saddle's reins. Krile stopped moving. I reached my hand up and pet Papalymo, who's angler fish like bulb immediately lit up. "Finally! I could see where we're going! Man, Alphinaud would have figured that out sooner than I did." I found myself once again thinking about Alphinaud. I couldn't seem to get that elezen out of my head. And even if I could, I wouldn't want to. He had become a vital part of my life that I couldn't live without. He always seemed to be there for me when I needed him. Alphinaud is an amazing friend. I had the thought in my head. But something deeper, perhaps in my heart, gave some hints that it wanted something more. I snapped back to reality as Krile bumped into something. "Ack! Sorry girl, I was lost in thought. I didn't mean to steer you into a-" I gazed upon the face of a snarling dire bear. Papalymo's ears flicked back. The dire bear roared and we shot off in the opposite direction. The good thing was that ravagers are faster, or at least, Krile is faster than dire bears. The bad thing was that after a few minutes, Krile slowed to a complete stop, panting like she had run a marathon. She's out of stamina. I looked around. We still didn't seem to be anywhere recognizable, but the darkness of the night distorted everything. For all I knew we could have ran right past the base and thought we were still lost. But then, If that were so, Krile would have picked up Alphinaud's scent and let me know about it. I sat down next to the ravager, defeated. She growled at me, which made me jump in surprise. "Krile? What's wrong? Did I sit on your tail?" I asked. She cocked her head. I heard the growl again. It was definitely a ravager growl, but it didn't come from Krile. A wild ravager that was stalking her from behind came into Papalymo's light. "KRILE! BEHIND YOU!" She probably didn't understand my words, but she definitely understood my meaning. She shot up, still tired, and whirled around, slashing the ravager's face with her claws. They got into a fight, and I could barley tell what was happening. Until the wild ravager's corpse fell to the floor and a bloodied Krile emerged victorious. "Yeah! Go Krile! That's what I'm talking about!" I cheered. I barley took a step towards my ravager before an entire pack of raptors stormed in. Krile, now tired and injured, still turned around to fight. I pulled out my sword and began hacking at a raptor who charged at me. It appeared to be the alpha of the pack, as it was stronger than the others. As I managed to undercut the raptor, causing it to jerk away in pain, a different cry sounded. My eyes widened as I looked upon Krile, her entire body covered in blood, scratches and deep flesh wounds. Her legs buckled and the remaining raptors swarmed her. "Krile! NO! KRILE!!" I swiped vigorously at the raptor in front of me. With a blade to the head, it's dead body dropped and I started towards the other raptors. I killed two more, but I had a few wounds myself. I couldn't take anymore hits... I saw past another raptor. Krile, on the floor, her eyes greyed out. Her limbs completely twisted and snapped. There was no mistaking it; she was dead. Papalymo sensed it too. His light started to flicker. He was running out of charge! If he did, we would be left in complete darkness, food for the raptors. Taking one last look at my dead friend, I swiveled around and ran off, tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. I didn't know where I was headed, which was nothing new. Except... I was running along a river. I remembered this river. This is where Alphinaud and I tested out Krile's new saddle! I swallowed back more tears. Oh, Krile... if my guess was correct and this really was the same swampy river, then the base should be...... Papalymo yapped happily as the behemoth doors came into sight. Tired from running, my legs started to feel like jello. I shoved open the doors and collapsed on the floor. "Jackie!" I heard Alphinaud call. There was a sound of something metal being dropped on the floor, then panicked running. I lifted my head up to see Alphinaud, leaning over me and looking extremely worried. "Alphi..." I pulled myself up. "Are you ok? What happened to you? You look like you've been in a fight!" Alphinaud looked at Papalymo, who was uninjured. Then, looking around, he realized. "Where's Krile?" It was too much for me to handle. I broke down sobbing. Alphinaud guessed what happened and pulled me into a hug, allowing me to cry into his shoulder. "Jackie... you're freezing..." Alphinaud said after a few minutes. I wiped the tears from my face and looked at him. "Sorry." I said, voice still shaky. "No, no it's ok! Not your fault. I have a fire started, come sit." He said. "Thank you." I replied. And so we sat by the fire, soaking up its warmth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My eyes started to get heavy and my body ached. I had tried my best to bandage my wounds. Alphinaud had cooked some dodo meat, and I ate a large filling. And then we had sat back near the fire, staring into its flame. I leaned on Alphinaud's shoulder, which made him stiffen for a minute. He relaxed shortly after. I wondered for a minute if he was blushing, but I was too tired to check. I felt the pull of sleep as I listened to the crackling fire, burning bright and full of energy.
Just like Krile's soul.